Welcome to “Unlocking the Law: Deregulating the Legal Profession”
Licensing and regulation of lawyers, long questioned by scholars, is emerging as an important public issue. Legal costs are rising for individuals and firms with increases in litigation and regulation. These costs tax business growth and entrepreneurship and impede ordinary Americans’ access to the civil justice system. Meanwhile, the development of new business structures and technologies and significant regulatory moves toward opening up competition for legal services in the UK and elsewhere are forcing policymakers to address lawyer licensing and regulation. The U.S. is certainly not immune from the economic and other institutional forces nudging toward a reconsideration of existing licensing and regulation regimes. It is an excellent time to reexamine the costs and benefits of existing and alternative regimes in light of these changes.
Day 1 of the Symposium (September 19, 2011) featured posts from:
- Larry Ribstein on After the Fall (Of Regulation)
- Eric Rasmusen on Everyday Versus Fancy Law
- Walter Olson on Careful What You Unleash
- Richard Painter on Litigation Financing and Insurance
- Renee Newman Knake on Corporations, the Delivery of Legal Services, and the First Amendment (Part I)
- Bruce Kobayashi in Creative Destruction and the Market for Legal Services
- Eric Talley on Deregulating Lawyers: Comments From A Knee-jerk Skeptic
- Thomas Morgan on Realistic Questions About Modern Lawyer Regulation
- Gillian Hadfield on Right-Regulating Legal Markets
- William Henderson on Are We Asking the Wrong Questions About Lawyer Regulation?
- Robert Crandall on We Need More Lawyers!
- Larry Ribstein on Deregulating Lawyers Whether They Like It Or Not
- Joshua Wright on Welcome to the TOTM Symposium on Unlocking the Law: Deregulating the Legal Profession
Day 2 of the Symposium (September 20, 2011) featured posts from:
- Hans Bader on Abolish Law School Requirement, Keep Bar Exam?
- Thom Lambert on Alternatives to Lawyer Licensing
- George Leef on Licensure in the Legal Profession
- Gillian Hadfield on Evidence-based Regulation for Law
- Eric Rasmusen on Unauthorized Practice of Law — The Case of Free Advice
- Larry Ribstein on the Future of Legal Education
- Walter Olson on Reform Law Schools, Don’t Sue Them
- Dan Katz on Legal Informatics, Corporate Law Firm Ownership and 21st Century Legal Education
- George Leef on If We Want Creative Destruction, Destroy Unauthorized Practice Prohibitions
- Nuno Garoupa on Reforming Legal Professions in Europe
- Benjamin Barton on The Lawyer-Judge Bias
- Renee Newman Knane on Corporations, the Delivery of Legal Services, and the First Amendment (Part II)
- Nuno Garoupa on Reforming Legal Professions in East Asia
- James Cooper on Antitrust Treatment of Expansive Interpretations of Ethical Rules
- Bruce Kobayashi on Copyrighting Law and Deregulation
- Robert Crandall on It Is Time to Move Ahead with Deregulation
- Larry Ribstein on Concluding Unlocking the Law
Please remember to check out the comments to the individual posts as well, which include some excellent additional commentary and lively discussion among participants.